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Whole Wheat and Spelt Sourdough with Sprouts and Seeds

May 16, 2013 - 11:30am

dabrownman

Whole Wheat and Spelt Sourdough with Sprouts and Seeds

We were out of white bread again and with Lucy in the middle of her rye bread experiments, it didn’t look like we would get a chance to make one either. But we built the rye levain for her and at the same time a whole wheat one for this bread and a YW one for some possible pizza - possibly tomorrow or Sunday. Saturday is out since we are off to Tucson to finish moving my daughter back home.

This levain build was 3 stages, 4 hours each, levain build like the last one with the exception that, instead of an overnight 12 hour retard of the levain after the 3rd feeding, this one had a 36 hour retard after the 3rd feeding. It was allowed to come to room temperature for 2 hours when it more than doubled.

That same 2 hours was used for the autolyse of the dry ingredients with the exception of the seeds and sprouts. The liquid was the reserved soaking water from the sprouts for this bake and the soaking water from last one with some honey.

The dry included toadies, WW, Spelt, oats, corn, red and white malts, a small; amount of VWG, and some medium ground white and black sesame seeds with some golden and brown flax seeds.

Once the autolyse was mixed with the small amount of levain, we did 10 minutes of slap and folds where the gluten developed very well. We then did 3 sets of S&F’s where the remaining hemp, black, white and brown poppy seeds and the WW sprouts were incorporated on the first stretch and fold.

Once the S&F’s were completed we let the dough rest for 30 minutes before shaping it and placing it in a rice floured basket and then immediately retarding it for 15 hours. The dough had doubled during the retard so when we pulled it out of the fridge in the morning we then fired up old Betsy to 500 F to bake the bread as soon as possible.

We used our usual Sylvia’s steaming pyrex pan with two towels and David’s, lava rock filled, CI 12” skillet both half full of water for the mega steam which was placed on the bottom rack when the temperature hot 425 F. When Betsy beeped she was at 500F we set the timer for 15 minutes to allow the top and bottom stones to get to the 500 F and get the steam billowing.

We un-molded the bread from the basket, gently since it was an inch over the rim, and over turned it onto parchment paper on a peel. We quickly scored it and placed it on the bottom stone and steamed it at 470 F for 15 minutes before removing the steam and turning the oven down to 435 F, convection this time.

The bread was rotated 90 degrees on the stone every 5 minutes to ensure even browning. 20 minutes after the steaming scheme came out of the oven, the bread was at 200 F. We turned the oven off and left the bread on the stone with the door closed. When the bread hit 205 F 5 minutes later, we opened the door and allowed the crust to further crisp on the stone till it hit 207 F.

Total baking time to 205 F was 40 minutes with an additional 5 minutes for the bread to crisp on the stone from 205 F to 207 F. The crust was blistered with small hole, boldly baked to a mahogany color and quite crisp. The crust went soft as it cooled. We will have to wait for the crumb shots when we slice this bread for lunch.

The crumb is soft, moist and flavorful with a very nice nutty background and seedy crunch of the hemp and poppy seeds This is another bread we like very much. It may not look as delicious as it really is but that is because it is subtle and not to be taste bud trusted. It grows on you .... and we will let it do so :-) It is a welcomed treat to have so many good bakes of late and then have the baker at Sprouts give me a decent SFSD too! Don't say anything but my apprentices breads are way better than Sprouts but I am glad Sprouts is selling something decent for very little hard earned cash. I saw a very small selection of bread at Whole Foods that is baked in a small bakery in Coolidge . AZ. I'm going to take a bike ride there and see what that bakery is all about. Their bread looked very good on the outside and baked in a WFO!

Comments

With our temps warming up I have a sprouted grain in my line up now too. I think I get to do it next week sometime. I was interested to see how far you let your seeds sprout. I generally only let the first hint of a bud show before using them. ( I do let them go further when I use them for malting.) In the past I have always ground them into a paste before adding to the dough. I am thinking I will add them whole since you have had good results that way - less dishes to wash :- )

I'm really liking the flavor that corn is giving to these breads of late - thanks to you. Usually the rye sprouts (just chitted) in 24 hours and it takes anther 24 hours for the WW to get there. But, maybe because it was warm (with the A/C now set at 80 F), This was the way they looked at a little over 48 hours. Normally it takes 4 days to get long roots with WW. In 4 days for rye I am making malt and 6 days for WW. Nothing like home made rye red and white malts

I do grind up flax seeds every time since we can't digest whole ones at all their nutritional and health benefits are totally lost in bread otherwise.

We actually got two bakes in this week after the out of town graduation lull last week, Both had sprouts! We love sprouts, and anything else you can put as an add in to the crumb, The taste so much better and the health benefits can't be matched in bread, Bake them boldly at decent hydration and the flavor is tough to beat,

Lucy seems to be back in action with her exotic creations. What is not to like about this bread with sprouts, seeds and flours from every section of grocery store!

I am going to try to sprout my sorghum & millet berries (those are the only ones I have and want to use them up soon) next week and follow your guideline for making malts as it is quite difficult for me to get it in stores.

about making white malt is that I don't have any appliance to dry the berries at temperature less than 150 F. I would prefer to dry white malt at 130 F to make sure the enzymes we are trying to encourage aren't damaged. Red malt - no problem except for burning it :-)

This bread is another one that packs a lot of flavor and whole grains into what is essentially a 60% white bread. Luucy believes that there no reason white bread can't be interesting and healthy as any other :-) It makes some delicious sandwiches and toast and we will find out how it does as bruschetta tonight - with pizza! These are the kind of breads we like to make. Nice color, chewy bits inside and out and a fine SD tang.

A variety of breads and what is in them is what makes bread baking interesting for me and my apprentice and ......variety is the spice of life. It sounds like your bread baking will soon take you places and parts unknown - a great journey awaits you!

Take a look at Karin's Black Rice Bread. It is one of my favorites, a top 5 bread that has 15 on the list! I added some stuff to her recipe, a real shocker and quite outside my nature, but the original recipe It is full of flavor. I happened across some black rice a couple of months ago to put in bread but haven't gotten around to it. Will watch your post for some hints.

complicated than that. Using a total amount of levain that is around 10% of the dough weight means the levain will work on the dough longer - longer time means more sour. Also you will notice that when i build a levain I don't add water for the 3rd build - just flour.

I have found being at 100% hydration for the first of (2) 4 hour builds and then adding the flour to stiffen it up for the 3rd build and then immediately refrigerating the levain right after the 3rd feeding - for 12 to 36 hours (the longer the better) and then bringing it out of the fridge to finish the 3 rd 4 hour build until it doubles, makes for more sour. Rye in the levain males for mor sou and bulk retarding the dough.

I also like to build the starter seed to full strength at 100% hydration then stiffen it up and refrigerate it for 3-4 days before removing 10 -15 g from it to make a levain. The reason for the the longer times and many lengthy retards of starter levain and dough is pure science.

At low temperatures, 36 F, The reproductive rate of Labs that produce sour and the yeast that produce CO2 that make the bread rise are slowed down dramatically. But the Labs reproduction while slowed dramatically is 3 times greater than the reproductive rate of yeast. So at low temperatures, Labs are multiplying much faster than yeast meaning that the bread will be inoculate with more labs than yeast and be more sour.

Eventually the yeast will produce enough CO2 for the bread to be fully proofed and ready to be baked at any temperature. If you can slow this gas production down to a crawl and get Lab production 3 times faster, for as long as possible, the more sour your bread will be.

At room temperature, 72 F, Labs and yeast reproduce at the same rate so you get a much lower acid production and less sour when developing bread at this temperature. At 85 F labs and yeast are both reproducing a very fast rates but once again labs are reproducing at 3 times the rate of yeast meaning that the bead is getting more acidic and sour faster than it is getting proofed for baking,

For SD breads you will normally see me retard the starter for 3-4 days, retard the levain for 12-36 hours and retard the dough for 12 - 40 hours so that the Labs can have the time to make the dough sour while the yeast is restricted to allow a longer time before proofing the bread. Then I do a final proof at 85 F.

For these long periods I like to add some white diastaic malt to the mix to make sure there are enough enzymes to break the protein bonds in the flour reducing it to the maltose and fructose that yeast and Labs feed on - you don't want them running out of food at the end of the process. The bread doesn't final proof right and doesn't color up the wasy it should if the beasties run out of food - plus they might attack your apprentice :-)

Some folks don't like sour so there is the Tartine fresh, liquid, white flour starter with the levain and dough developed at room temperature for their tastes. SFSD in general is not very sour. The great thing is that folks can pick what amount of sour they like and then develop a process that gives it to them.

Remember there are other subtle flavors that develop in bread dough the longer it ferments too but not as much scientific research has been don on these intricacies of flavor.

The ground flax and sesame seeds really give a nutty wholesome taste to this bread and compliment the sprout chew. The hemp and poppy crunch, if a little dopey, is a surprising twist too. This bread grows on you and it was more sour the next day too. Even my wife has been taking it for lunch. She wonders why Orowweat's 100% Whole Wheat tastes and looks like it is missing some of the 'whole' compared to this bread that seems,feels, and tastes so much more full of 'whole' but is only 60% whole grains? I think it has something to do with improper; labeling, inferior ingredients, poor methods and evil machines :-)

I wanted to put some kind of soft cheese in this bread but was shocked to find out we didn't have any. Turned out it didn't need it. Glad you liked the bread Ian.

Well, my first bake this weekend turned into a pancake and I ended up with a nice rustic flatbread! I tried to convert my Pillow bread to all yeast water starter but I think since I was mixing the dough while I was take a lunch bread I must have scewed the formula up. I just had some for breakfast toasted with cream cheese and it still tasted good but not something I would write home about...

I'm working on another version of the same bread using yeastwater more for extra flavor in the levain rather than the leavening agent this time. Hopefully this one will come out right. I'm also making some simple white bread hamburger buns for my wife since to her that is what a hamburger bun is supposed to be. I added a few things in at the end and mixed in some Yeast water for extra flavor to boot! Hopefully I will have some time in the next day or so to post if all goes well.

I read the same list to her not too long ago after I made a WW bread for her. She was shocked but not shocked enough. She always eats them for awhile and then next thing you know she wants me to find a place in the freezer for her Oroweat. I don't get it since my bread tastes a whole , whole lot better and is healthier too. Now I see my daughter has a loaf of Oroweat Multi grain in the freezer too! I'm starting to think my bread is totally unloved by close family members :-) We will see if they like the Kaiser rolls today for hamburgers :-)

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